Why Snap Stock Blasted Higher Again on Thursday
Snap Inc. (SNAP) saw its stock rise over 4% on Thursday, outperforming the S&P 500's 1.7% increase. This surge followed a positive analyst report from Loop Capital's Alan Gould, who maintained a buy recommendation and price target for the stock. Gould highlighted encouraging growth in monthly active users, which increased by 100 million to 850 million since last year's summit. He also expressed optimism about Snap's augmented reality glasses and the potential for growth through content and ads unification efforts.
There is a clutch of stocks that convincingly beat the market on both Wednesday and Thursday, but not a great many. Among these high achievers was social media company Snap (SNAP 4.14%), which again posted an exceptional gain on the penultimate day of the trading week. Snap didn't offer any fresh news of its own, but an analyst bolstered the buy case for the stock, helping to send it more than 4% higher on a day when the S&P 500 index posted a 1.7% increase.
A bull continues to recommend a buy
Two days out from Snap's partner summit, in which it unveiled a host of innovations to its offerings, another prognosticator reiterated his positive view of the company.
This was Loop Capital's Alan Gould, who before market open published a take on both the summit and the social media veteran's prospects for the future. He's a Snap bull, as he kept his buy recommendation and $14 per share price target intact.
Gould wrote in his latest research note that while the event didn't change his opinion of Snap's potential, he found several pieces of information from management to be encouraging. Among these was the growth of monthly average users (MAUs), an important metric in the social media world. The company's MAUs from last year's summit to the 2024 event rose by 100 million to hit 850 million.
Prominent and under-the-radar revenue streams
The analyst is also a believer in a frequently dismissed corner of Snap's business, its augmented reality (AR) glasses, although he feels this opportunity will take quite some time to reach its full promise. Meanwhile, he believes that "content and ads unification efforts will provide a new axis for optimization, [and] product work on app install ads will provide another leg of growth to direct response revenue."